Today I developed a simple control for generating lists in ASP.NET, something that the base class library does not contain; it allows for nested lists where the list item types and images can be configured on a list by list basis. Since it was a great fun to develop, I'd like to share it here. Here is the code:

[ParseChildren(true)]
[PersistChildren(false)]
public class List: WebControl
{
	public List(): base("ul")
	{
		this.Items = new List();
		this.ListStyleType = ListStyleType.Auto;
		this.ListStyleImageUrl = String.Empty;
		this.CommonCssClass = String.Empty;
		this.ContainerCssClass = String.Empty;
	}

	[DefaultValue(ListStyleType.Auto)]
	public ListStyleType ListStyleType
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[DefaultValue("")]
	[UrlProperty("*.png;*.gif;*.jpg")]
	public String ListStyleImageUrl
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[DefaultValue("")]
	[CssClassProperty]
	public String CommonCssClass
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[DefaultValue("")]
	[CssClassProperty]
	public String ContainerCssClass
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[Browsable(false)]
	[PersistenceModeAttribute(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
	public List Items
	{
		private set;
		get;
	}

	protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
	{
		String cssClass = String.Join(" ", new String [] { this.CssClass, this.ContainerCssClass });

		if (cssClass.Trim().Length != 0)
		{
			this.CssClass = cssClass;
		}

		if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(this.ListStyleImageUrl) == false)
		{
			this.Style[ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleImage ] = String.Format("url('{0}')", this.ResolveClientUrl(this.ListStyleImageUrl));
		}

		if (this.ListStyleType != ListStyleType.Auto)
		{
			switch (this.ListStyleType)
			{
				case ListStyleType.Circle:
				case ListStyleType.Decimal:
				case ListStyleType.Disc:
				case ListStyleType.None:
				case ListStyleType.Square:
					this.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = this.ListStyleType.ToString().ToLower();
					break;
				case ListStyleType.LowerAlpha:
					this.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "lower-alpha";
					break;
				case ListStyleType.LowerRoman:
					this.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "lower-roman";
					break;
				case ListStyleType.UpperAlpha:
					this.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "upper-alpha";
					break;
				case ListStyleType.UpperRoman:
					this.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "upper-roman";
					break;
			}
		}
			base.Render(writer);
	}

	protected override void RenderChildren(HtmlTextWriter writer)
	{
		foreach (ListItem item in this.Items)
		{
			this.writeItem(item, this, 0);
		}

		base.RenderChildren(writer);
	}

	private void writeItem(ListItem item, Control control, Int32 depth)
	{
		HtmlGenericControl li = new HtmlGenericControl("li");
		control.Controls.Add(li);

		if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(this.CommonCssClass) == false)
		{
			String cssClass = String.Join(" ", new String [] { this.CommonCssClass, this.CommonCssClass + depth });
			li.Attributes [ "class" ] = cssClass;
		}

		foreach (String key in item.Attributes.Keys)
		{
			li.Attributes[key] = item.Attributes [ key ];
		}

		li.InnerText = item.Text;

		if (item.ChildItems.Count != 0)
		{
			HtmlGenericControl ul = new HtmlGenericControl("ul");
			li.Controls.Add(ul);

			if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(this.ContainerCssClass) == false)
			{
				ul.Attributes["class"] = this.ContainerCssClass;
			}

			if ((item.ListStyleType != ListStyleType.Auto) || (String.IsNullOrEmpty(item.ListStyleImageUrl) == false))
			{
				if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(item.ListStyleImageUrl) == false)
				{
					ul.Style[HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleImage] = String.Format("url('{0}');", this.ResolveClientUrl(item.ListStyleImageUrl));
				}

				if (item.ListStyleType != ListStyleType.Auto)
				{
					switch (this.ListStyleType)
					{
						case ListStyleType.Circle:
						case ListStyleType.Decimal:
						case ListStyleType.Disc:
						case ListStyleType.None:
						case ListStyleType.Square:
							ul.Style[ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = item.ListStyleType.ToString().ToLower();
							break;
						case ListStyleType.LowerAlpha:
							ul.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "lower-alpha";
							break;
						case ListStyleType.LowerRoman:
							ul.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "lower-roman";
							break;
						case ListStyleType.UpperAlpha:
							ul.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "upper-alpha";
							break;
						case ListStyleType.UpperRoman:
							ul.Style [ HtmlTextWriterStyle.ListStyleType ] = "upper-roman";
							break;
					}
				}
			}

			foreach (ListItem childItem in item.ChildItems)
			{
				this.writeItem(childItem, ul, depth + 1);
			}
		}
	}
}

[Serializable]
[ParseChildren(true, "ChildItems")]
public class ListItem: IAttributeAccessor
{
	public ListItem()
	{
		this.ChildItems = new List();
		this.Attributes = new Dictionary();
		this.Text = String.Empty;
		this.Value = String.Empty;
		this.ListStyleType = ListStyleType.Auto;
		this.ListStyleImageUrl = String.Empty;
	}

	[DefaultValue(ListStyleType.Auto)]
	public ListStyleType ListStyleType
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[DefaultValue("")]
	[UrlProperty("*.png;*.gif;*.jpg")]
	public String ListStyleImageUrl
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[DefaultValue("")]
	public String Text
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[DefaultValue("")]
	public String Value
	{
		get;
		set;
	}

	[Browsable(false)]
	public List ChildItems
	{
		get;
		private set;
	}

	[Browsable(false)]
	public Dictionary Attributes
	{
		get;
		private set;
	}

	String IAttributeAccessor.GetAttribute(String key)
	{
		return (this.Attributes [ key ]);
	}

	void IAttributeAccessor.SetAttribute(String key, String value)
	{
		this.Attributes [ key ] = value;
	}
}

[Serializable]
public enum ListStyleType
{
	Auto = 0,
	Disc,
	Circle,
	Square,
	Decimal,
	LowerRoman,
	UpperRoman,
	LowerAlpha,
	UpperAlpha,
	None
}